Tim Seeley's love affair with comic books began young: At about five-years-old to be exact. Around the same time, Seeley's father bought the family's first VHS. It wasn't long before the future Chicago-based artist found himself sitting in his dad's basement, surrounded by a sprawl of pages, eyes transfixed on the television as he watched what would become another life's passion -- films by Lloyd Kaufman's Troma Entertainment. As any cult-film fetishist would tell you, Troma is the one place where raunchy sexploitation, graphic violence, and masterful flourishes of trashy humor come together in perfect, low-budget union. Seeley, now 30, has bridged the gap between the comic and film worlds with the release of his original graphic novel "The Toxic Avenger and Other Tromatic Tales" -- a collection of stories adapted from Troma films by different writers including Daniel Robert Epstein, who contributed his version of Tromeo and Juliet" to the collection.

SuicideGirls got Seeley on the phone to chat about the graphic novel, the upcoming "Hack/Slash" movie and why there's nothing wrong with liking babes and dinosaurs...

Look for "The Toxic Avenger and Other Tromatic Tales" out now via Devil's Due Publishing.

Erin Broadley: So, lets talk about your book. Its called The Toxic Avenger and Other Tromatic Tales.

Tim Seeley: Yeah, its basically an OGN -- original graphic novel -- which means its never been printed in floppy format before, like a monthly comic book form. Its a compilation of prequels, remakes and sequels.

EB: Of the Troma movies?

TS: Yeah, from their film library. Theyre done by a bunch of different people that I could con into doing a story.

EB: Con into doing it? Come on, whose arm did you really have to twist to get them to work on a Troma project?

TS: It wasnt too bad but, in true Troma fashion, there was no budget. Basically I licensed it out myself; it wasnt a company. I was like, Im going to do this -- just me. Everybodys like, Yeah, whatever. Everybody loves Troma. Great idea, idiot. I didnt have any money but I could use the pity thing with friends [to my advantage].

EB: Playing the pity card can take you a long way.

TS: Yeah, we do it all the time! Every year I think most creative people have a certain amount of time where they go, This will be for shit that Im not going to make any money with but it will be fun. If youre used to working for big companies like Marvel and DC, youre not going to see this stuff. For a lot of those other guys, theyre not going to get the chance to draw exploding boobs or somebody eating somebodys head or Troma stuff. Youre not going to get to do this with Spider-Man because moms and dads might have a problem with that. In the Troma books you can get away with all kinds of shit.

EB: Right. Where did your interest in Troma really start? How far back does it go?

TS: Well, I grew up in the country. Like, way out in the country.

EB: Really?

TS: Yeah, in Wisconsin. When the VCR first came out, I was four or five years old and my dad was right on top of that shit because he was a big movie guy. At the time, when movies first started coming out on video there were limitations on what you could find and my dad got just obsessed with Troma movies because they had boobs and gore in them and my dad is, you know, hes that kind of dude. So hed always rent these things and then, whenever wed walk downstairs wed be like, Oh my God, whats this? We were five years old and watching Troma.

EB: Yeah, my dad was always watching Predator or renting old zombie movies, the cheesier the better. When I was three years old I was crying during the Care Bears movie because I didnt like it so he took me in to the next theater to see Stephen Kings Cats Eye. That movie shut me up! At that point I think he just signed off on what my interests were going to be.

TS: [Laughs] Exactly. I think a lot of people unfortunately grew up not getting to do that stuff and were restricted as a kid. It makes you messed up so you might as well see that shit when youre young and it will make you a cool person. You have to start early with this stuff anyway because its a hard and competitive field. So anyway, [my interest started] from my dad and when I was in late high school, I got my own car and video card to go rent stuff. I rented Tromeo and Juliet, which was the one they released when I was 18. I thought it was the goriest movie of all time. Then I started getting really hardcore because then I could rent things with exploding boobs and stuff like that without anyone there to hound me. I ended up being a really big fan of the movies. Then when I moved to Chicago I ended up meeting Lloyd Kaufman at a film festival and then I did some work for the movie Poltergeist and then it was like, Im always talking to these guys anyway. I might as well make a comic book of their stuff.

EB: Do you remember the first comic book you ever bought?

TS: Yeah, I do remember. It was like "Spider-Man 183" or something. No, no, I guess I dont remember.

EB: [Laughs]

TS: It was Spider-Man fighting the Juggernaut -- any kid who got that comic book first, you were going to be a dork for life. It had Spider-Man running a semi-truck into the Juggernaut.

EB: [Laughs]

TS: When youre five years old it doesnt get any cooler than that. So pretty much, I was a geek for life. There was no chance I was going to be a sports hero or anything like that.

EB: Being a sports hero was over at five.

TS: [Laughs] Yeah.

EB: So Toxic Avenger is 160 pages -- its huge.

TS: Yeah, but itll look really thin because comics these days and the kind of paper used is not what people are used to for a novel being like 400 pages. It will be like a trade paperback -- it will look unimpressive next to novels but the comic book was a hell of a lot of work.

EB: What are some of the differences between the work youve done as a staff artist for hire versus the comics that are your own brainchild, your own baby? Have you ever run into the situation where at the end of a long day after doing something for another company that it just makes you not want to do your own stuff?

TS: Yeah, but I think that happens to anybody who does what they love for a job. At first its great but sometimes when you get home youre like, Oh shit, I have no hobbies anymore. Like, I have to get into hardcore pornography or something because I have nothing to do, you know [laughs]. The bad thing about this book was that a lot of it was just sort of getting home and being like, Okay now its time to read everyones script. I was doing producer work or whatever, just sort of overseeing the thing but that was actually sort of fun. It wasnt like what I was doing all day. It was still in the field that Im sort of dork-ily obsessed with but it was at least completely different, you know.

EB: So, Daniel Robert Epstein wrote the story for Tromeo and Juliet in this book. Didn't you meet him through SuicideGirls?

TS: Yeah, actually, he interviewed me for SuicideGirls. I have this little thing like, most of the time during an interview, if me and the interviewer get along then well just start chatting in general. So, who knows, maybe youll be writing in the next one!

EB: [Laughs]

TS: I basically work all day with a pencil and a piece of paper. So its not like Im a real social dude whos out there. So if I actually sit down and talk with someone its kind of nice. With Daniel it was like, Hes a cool guy. Hes a huge dork and he knows all the stuff I like. He used to work Troma and so when I started talking about doing the project I was like, Well, I totally have to have Daniel write one because he actually worked on the film Tromeo and Juliet.

EB: Oh, I didnt know that.

TS: Yeah, he was an intern on the set and his car is in the movie, I think. He was like the Forrest Gump of genre entertainment. He had connections to everything. He was buddies with Eli Roth and yeah, he was the nerd Forrest Gump.

EB: The nerd Forrest Gump...wasnt Forrest Gump already a nerd?

TS: Hes a retard, its kind of different.

EB: Im going to quote you on that.

TS: Go ahead. Yeah, but Daniel was the perfect guy to work on it. His story is basically about working on Tromeo and Juliet. The story is basically about him. He sent all kinds of references for the artist to use because he wanted it to be as authentic as possible -- like a day working as a Troma intern. He was probably one of the most excited guys. Its like a partially true story where he discovers this intern that has been locked up for ten years on the movie set. So theres this kind of mutant Troma intern. With Troma, ninety percent of their films are made by guys who are interns and stuff like that, so this one just totally speaks to the Troma experience -- eating shitty cheese sandwiches and trying to make this film and not getting paid anything for it.

EB: Like making macaroni and cheese but you ran out of milk so you use water or Coffee Mate instead.

TS: Yeah, exactly. [Laughs] Exactly. So I wanted some of the stories to deal directly with the films and some of them be peripherally about the films. So Daniels is sort of about working on Tromeo and Juliet and another guy's is about how when he was a little kid, a Troma film was on Cinemax at night and he was like the little kid trying to see boobies. Some of the stories are direct sequels like "Toxic Avenger" and some of them are about peoples experiences with these low budget, ultimately schlock-y movies that. If youre younger than that you probably have never heard of the movies.

EB: So how are things going with all the promo stuff for the book? Are people excited now that the release date is getting closer?

TS: It's been good. We dedicated it to Daniel so he got a page in the front. It was weird because his story was the one that wasnt quite finished. So we had to get it finished and kind of tweaked it out. So, its done. Itll come out. Im glad his story is in there. We'll have some of the first copies available at the Comic Con in San Diego. I think it will ship in August sometime mid August maybe.

EB: Awesome. Whats going on with the Hack/Slash movie you have in the works? Any updates with casting?

TS: Well, nothings signed, but yeah, I think were in the best spot. Were working on the final draft stuff, rewriting the script, some of the dialogue and crap. I dont know, maybe by San Diego well know something.

EB: Have you been part of any other comics that have made their way to film?

TS: Not even close [laughs].

EB: Is it scary or threatening to see your little creation get handed off to movie people to be adapted and changed for the big screen? How is it going through that adaptation process?

TS: Yeah. Its kind of weird because, when it originally got set up that way, I was completely resigned and completely comfortable with being like, Hey someone else to do it. You know, Send me a pass and Ill go see it when it comes out. I didnt think that I would have anything to do with it or whatever so I was completely cool with it. But since the directors a cool guy, he totally wants to have the input of the guys who made it up and stuff, so Im kind of working on it, doing designs and all that kind of stuff. So, fortunately its going the way I kind of wanted because otherwise now Id just be a total bitch. If Im not working on it then Im just like, Yeah, whatever. But its cool. Im having a way better experience than I probably should be because, obviously, you hear total horror stories about this kind of stuff but for me its pretty much like working on an issue of the comic. Like the graphic guy calls me saying, Hey what were you looking to do? What do you think? And Im like, I guess you could ask me. You dont have to but thank you. Then I give them a list of shit so, yeah, its pretty cool. I mean in this case since were obviously not in production or doing any of that stuff. Theres not a lot of money flying around but at least Im getting to include my input and I get to work with cool people. So, so far Ive got no complaints.

EB: As a comic fan and a film fan, what are some of your favorite book to screen adaptations?

TS: I think Ghost World is a really good one. It maintained the flavor of the comic and its cool just because it shows people, Oh, they actually make comics that arent about dudes punching each other in the face? You know, which totally helps. I really liked American Splendor too. And then 300 just because its really fun. It just whips your ass. Its like totally entertaining. Right after you watch it you want to eat steak or fuck something.

EB: [Laughs] Pump iron?

TS: Yeah, exactly, walk around in a thong or whatever.

EB: It seems like graphic novels are going through a type of renaissance, particularly with their presence in mainstream culture. I remember when I was growing up my uncle owned a comics store and nobody cared. For someone thats been involved in the business several years, what are some of the challenges that you face when trying to maintain a sense of authority amongst everyone else jumping on board the graphic novel band wagon?

TS: I dont know. Its weird. I think from the outside it sort of looks like, Wow, this stuff is sort of taking off!" People recognize it. But I think from the inside if you work in it, its sort of the same job it was when I first started six years ago. Now there is just sort of less chance that you have to, you know, lie when someone asks you what you do. You can actually get laid once in a while. Superhero stuff is more popular than ever but comics are more than just the superhero stuff. I think its still kind of a weird niche world. You know, I mean, youre still talking about maybe 300,000 people that kind of actively read comics. That might be an okay opening for a movie one weekend. So its still, in its way, a kind of small niche market. Its cool to be a dork right now. You know, that sort of geek culture, its sort of unifying -- you can be a Goth kid, you can be an movie kid, you can be a comic nerd, you can be a Sci-Fi fan, and youve got other people to share with. Do not fuck with nerds.

EB: So the story you did for this book was "Nymphoid Barbarian in Dinosaur Hell."

TS: Yeah, thats one I wrote and drew. Its just an excuse for me to draw babes and dinosaurs. I hadnt even seen the movie. It kind of makes fun of the fact that I hadnt seen that movie. Its just obvious that I was like, Hey, nymphoid...thats dirty girls! Then, I wrote "Teenage Cat Girls in Heat" which I actually have seen a bunch of times. That one is sort of an homage to what I think is one of the best ideas ever -- a goddess comes back and all these cats turn into hot girls but they still lick themselves and stuff.

EB: Creatively, were there conflicts of interest working with so many different writers on this book or was everybody kind of on the same page?

TS: I think everybody was on the same page. One of the hardest things is just getting people to turn their crap in, Im used to being just the guy who draws shit or write shits. I dont usually have to be the bulldog thats, like, hanging on your ass getting you to do shit. You learn pretty quickly that, You know, Im being way too fucking nice here. You have to, which I think is probably a good education in general. Pretty much everybody that was working on it were pretty much people who were buddies of mine. Creatively it was crazy. It was pretty easy and -- particularly when were talking about the Troma stuff -- the more fucked up the better. Exactly, I felt maybe there were times where it was too easy and maybe it should be weirder, darker, more fucked up, or funnier. I think its like childbirth, like, during the labor I was like, Oh my God Ill never do this again. But now Im planning Troma II so...obviously [laughs].